


The Gates of Heaven and Hell Open

by The_Exile



Category: Star Ocean: The Second Story | Second Evolution
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Heroine Big Bang, Spoilers, Valkyrie Profile cameo, canon Christmas references, references to other games in series, weak fourth wall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:29:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29778255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Exile/pseuds/The_Exile
Summary: Our heroes have already saved the Universe. Rena, Celine, Chisato and Welch set out to explore the Maze of Tribulations. The guardians of the Maze already predict trouble as soon as Welch and Puffy meet but they do not expect Chisato to sneak into an area of the maze it should be impossible to get into. Also starring Gabriel Celestia, the Ethereal Queen, Puffy and the interdimensional black market trader known only as 'Santa'.
Relationships: Celine Jules/Ashton Anchors, Claude C. Kenny/Rena Lanford
Collections: Heroine Big Bang!





	1. Chapter 1

From their red velvet chaise longue in the middle of the Tower's summit, a floor higher than visitors had access to, the Ethereal Queen observed the Maze of Tribulations’ most recent guests. All of the screens of her vast array of security terminals, floating mid-air in a circle of holographic windows, showed the same sight. She was perfectly capable of seeing into the past, present and future at once, or of looking at several different possible futures based on the outcomes of a decision. That she chose to focus on this one specific strand of fate told of its importance to her. In fact, if it had been any more momentous, she would be unable to tune away from it, the Universe would have been so insistent that she, a particularly important quantum observer, saw it. Considered part of the Seraphic Gate that separated the mortal from the divine, the Maze itself crossed over several time periods, locations and perceived reality, existing in a separate dimension with its own rules. All that occurred in the Maze was considered important by the Universe but in a way slightly sideways to, definitely outside, normal cause and effect. However, there were still variations in what could happen here, normally. This was one such instance of the Maze, one that happened to interest the Queen a lot more than usual - a miracle in itself, as, having seen almost everything in her long aeons of existence, she was easily bored and notoriously difficult to please.

Her twin brother, Gabriel Celesta, third in power only to the Ethereal Queen and the Goddess Tria Herself, materialised in the room with a silver tray containing a tea set and a plate of cakes. He set the tray on a coffee table in front of them, then sat next to his sister, his posture straighter than his sister's near sprawl against the arm of the sofa. She muttered a thank-you, reached across as lazily as possible without falling over, then grabbed a cake and a cup of tea that he had just poured for her. He sat silently with his own tea and cake, watching the activity on the screens. 

"I'm not going to be needed on the floor for a while," he commented, "Those four aren't even halfway up. The other girl a couple of floors higher..." he frowned, his normally serenely impassive face wrinkling in concern, "She's showing a worrying ability to interfere with the structure of the floor she's on but I don't think she can do so from another floor, so her efforts are keeping her there."

"She doesn't seem all that good at it," noted his sister between messy mouthfuls of cake, "She's let that big monster go out of control twice now. I've half a mind to let it eat her, as a lesson about not messing around with official Celestial property."

"The most likely consequence is that it would persist on the floor and we'd have to deal with it ourselves, while also dealing with the narrative backlash of her death and the... problems caused by one of the other visitors, that is unlikely to go away either."

"Those two meeting up might cause just as many problems," the Ethereal Queen pointed out, reaching for another cake and spilling the tea down her black gown in the process, "They already know each other, I think. If they don't already recognise each other for what they are, it'll become obvious when they meet each other in this situation."

"Normally I'd say neither of them are competent enough to actually live long enough to cause a problem in a place like this," he sighed, "However, the girl on Floor Five is with some powerful friends, enough to actually make it up here between them if they go about it methodically."

"They're already acting like they know Santa's on this floor," observed the Queen, "They won't be hurting for equipment. Although if they buy from that asshole they'll be hurting for cash afterwards."

"If your intelligence is correct, they're at least friendly rivals with the girl on the eighth. Given the opportunity, with this much danger around them, they're most likely to team up," Gabriel mused, "Still, there is a policy for such things. I'll head back downstairs if I see them heading to the top, give them a fair fight, hand them a reward if they pass, something big and shiny enough to satisfy the adventurers they obviously are, while distracting them from the door to this place, which you'll hopefully have fully sealed off by then."

"Normally that'd satisfy me as enough," she answered, "But those two are both 4D Beings, probably from the Sphere. The brat on Floor Eight acts like one of the Sphere agents, except without a clue what she's doing. So, probably completely unregulated. You know what assholes those 4D types can be at the best of times…"

"These don't quite feel the same," countered Gabriel, "They've acted with enough moral integrity so far..."

"Towards each other, and people they think are 'real'," the Queen pointed out.

"The one in the group, at least, has not broken any of our rules," said Gabriel, "It is not illegal, only strictly monitored, to know of or to travel via the Sphere. The more creative one... has not actually broken anything irreversible, or even acted with any great malice."

"So, what, you want to wait for her to do just that, giving us both a harder time of it?" 

“I want to catch up with them both before they do any such thing,” he replied, “Maybe they would even be powerful allies if watched over and trained by someone reliable, someone other than the Sphere.”

“This room doesn’t fit three people in it,” she snapped.

“This room is near infinitely malleable...”

“Tria would never trust them.”

“She trusts us and our judgment, though,” he said, “Frankly, I do not think she would even bother to look at what we were doing unless it seemed like an emergency we couldn’t handle.”

“And they’re not THAT powerful,” she muttered, “Still, I think I’m gonna get involved in the trials myself, if you don’t mind. The level of responsibility you’re talking about giving them requires more rigorous standards.”

“You’re going into the Trumpet?

“You hand it to them as one of the prizes if you lose,” she said, “Don’t tell them straight up that it summons me, I want them to at least be able to work that out for themselves.”

“If you think its the wisest course of action to intervene that much,” he frowned, well aware of the impact that her raw power could have on the world simply by interacting with it at all. The trumpet would be a focus for a link to a pocket dimension where they could battle without harming anything, a kind of miniature, concentrated Maze of Tribulations, “Personally, I do not see how it involves the other three you’ll be getting involved in this.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised,” she grinned, looking up at the screen and applauding when another entire wave of Floor Sixes monsters were destroyed by their well-planned defensive tactics, “Those three have potential.”


	2. Chapter 2

For the next few minutes, a time that seemed to last hours in the intensely concentrated heat of battle, where every split second's decision meant life or death, the two onlookers were glued to the screens.

On the fifth floor, yet another skirmish had ignited between the four elite adventurers and the Labyrinth's guardians. This particular fight was with pack of Jabberwabbits - a name chosen by the Ethereal Queen in one of her darkly comedic moods that failed to express how dangerous the enormous rabbits were. More or less bipedal, the hulking floppy-eared beasts had also been given boxing gloves in another frivolous moment by the Queen of the Maze. This did not make them any less lethal, being twice the size of a human, almost entirely made of bulky muscle and capable of jumping near instantaneously from the ceiling to the floor. Even with enough magical protection and high quality armour between them to withstand their furious blows, the party's warriors were having trouble actually reaching and hitting the damned things.

The redhead in the smart black suit, the Queen noted, had given up her attempt at catching the ogroid rabbits mid-air with a flurry of somersault kicks. Instead, she'd pulled several business cards out of her purse and what looked like a mobile phone from her belt. The cards she threw into the air at the rabbits, upon which they burst into flame. Then she began talking into the communicator. After a few seconds, there was a loud, harsh crackle from the device, then a rumbling from the ceiling, then a rain of homing missiles flew in from the dark recesses of the rafters, colliding with the rabbits and exploding on impact. One of the Jabberwabbits was now on the floor, roaring in pain and fury as it desperately rolled around trying to put out its burning fur. 

That should not have worked in the Labyrinth, mused Gabriel Celesta. That should not have worked anywhere, in fact. The missiles originally had come from the L'Aqua Defence Force base on Energy Nede - or allegedly so. The artificial construct that had housed the entirety of planet Nede's population was now gone, effectively annihilated from existence. If the news reporter noticed this discrepancy, it didn't seem to interest her all that much - she'd already started digging around in her purse, presumably for more flammable objects to throw at rabbits. To be fair on her, thought the divine being, she'd seen this happen before several times by now. She also seemed quite adept at hiding her feelings, presumably because of the deception and stealth that must have been involved in her undercover journalism, by the ease with which she hid behind pillars and casually took photographs at every available opportunity during battle. 

Gabriel was unsure if he approved of that many visual records of the Maze's interior existing on that camera of hers. The Trials were supposed to be a mystery, discovering and preparing them part of the ordeal. This shameless woman was likely to plaster them all over the front pages of every newspaper in Expel! As he watched another rabbit fall to the fury of her purse-based arsenal, he wondered how easy it would be to 'accidentally' break her camera during their final showdown. At the rate they were going, he was now fairly sure the band of adventurers would make it to the top. He was, however, unsure he could actually succeed in breaking the camera. It was probably her most prized possession, something she would guard with the same ferocity as she protected her own life. 

There was also the possibility that she was, at least in part, metaphysically creating the camera, as well as the missiles and nerve gas cannisters she seemed to have an infinite supply of. Even though she probably wasn't actively aware of using it as this 'Puffy' obviously was, the one called 'Chisato' also had enough mental strength to wield at least some Creation Energy. Not in her everyday life, maybe, but here in the Maze, space and time were more malleable, as close to the original source of creation as the dimension was. All it really took was strong belief that something would work - even just habitually trying something - reinforced with a lot of raw psychic energy. 

It didn't, however, explain why the other obvious 4D Being, who had verbally expressed awareness of exactly where she was, kept just flailing around with a glove on a stick while screaming a terrible impression of Valkyrie Lenneth. 

Maybe, mused Gabriel Celesta, she was just bad at this.

That was unfair on her, though - she was doing a lot of damage with that Handy Stick of hers, easily keeping up with the more serious adventurers. She could jump high enough and extend the weapon of hers to hit the fiendish rabbits. She worked well with the journalist to trap the rabbits in pincer attacks, isolating them one by one, breaking off their assault only to drive back a rabbit that came too close to their other two companions, a very powerful magician and a healer. The magician was too busy firing off volley after volley of destructive symbological force of every element to really defend herself. When she wasn't cackling and hurling meteors, tidal waves and firestorms around, she regaled them with past adventuring stories and wise advice, or searched every square inch of the labyrinth for traps and hidden caches of treasure. 

The healer, curiously, had other things on her mind that Gabriel would have thought counted as good enough reasons not to go on such a dangerous and ultimately needless expedition at all. She was going to have a child. She wasn't very far enough along yet, not far enough for it to show, or to limit what she could do all that much. However, the life detecting scanners of the security room could pin down a second, faint life signal symbiotically linked to her own. The Ethereal Queen had taken one look at her mannerisms and confirmed that the girl known as 'Rena' was pregnant. 

If Gabriel Celesta had been prone to protective urges around her, however - and he completely lacked such sentiments anyway, especially towards intruders - they would have been dispelled when she started casting Star Flare over and over at a rate he didn't actually know was possible. Even the Ethereal Queen had whistled in admiration. 

By now, the four of them had dispatched all of their opponents. Rena was healing all their injuries while Celine looted the carcasses and Chisato insisted they all do their victory poses for a group photo.


	3. Chapter 3

"Find anything good?" asked Chisato.

"Nah, nothing under this fluff but a pair of spare boxing gloves and some more fluff," said Celine, "Some good eating on these, though."

"Celine! They're humanoid!" protested Rena.

"No, they're bipedal through an evolutionary quirk. They still have the brains of a rabbit. A big, angry rabbit that someone strapped gloves to," the symbologist shrugged, "I thought you lived here!"

"Normal people don't try and eat everything in a place just because you live there!"

"Its just rabbit. Rabbit risotto's my favourite food," she insisted, "Would it help if I burn it some more until you don't recognise it? Then it'll just be a well done steak."

"Wait, does that mean your steaks could have been ANYTHING?" Rena yelped, "That's it, only Leon and I may do the cooking from now on!"

"Fine. I'm making my own, though. You two never do rabbit properly."

"We could argue about ownership of a dead rabbit, or we could keep going and find the far more valuable treasure we're looking for," suggested Chisato, "It isn't long until the merchant is scheduled to appear."

"We're going to meet Santa!" Welch yelled, still twirling her handy stick in one of the victory poses she seemed to spend half her life practicing.

The designated meeting place for the interdimensional black marketeer known as 'Santa' was a vast hall, taking up half of the sixth floor. Closest to the stairway to the seventh floor, the chamber was decorated with a regular pattern of pillars and statues on tall columned plinths. Pillars stretched up to the ceiling higher than the human eye could see, while the statues were stone likenesses of the clan of thieves who made the floor their lair, dressed in their signature round, baggy cloth caps and wielding long knives. The thieves had a permanent contract with the Celestials and were allowed free rein to live in the Maze, hide smuggled and stolen goods, waylay adventurers as part of the labyrinth's trial, in exchange for maintaining the floors they used, resetting traps and refilling chests and oiling the mechanisms for switches, as well as answering calls to deal with security breaches. At some point, they'd become conceited enough to build statues in their likenesses - either that, or they'd slipped up while trying to keep out of the way of the basilisks on the upper floors and were trying to disguise their mistakes until one of them managed to steal a petrification cure. 

Chisato ran and hid behind a pillar, camera at the ready. Not a fan of thieves after previous bad experiences, as well as concerned at showing the untrustworthy second party the majority of their magical firepower straight away, Rena found another pillar, close enough that they could just about spot each other in an emergency. Celine and Welch walked briskly through the middle of an avenue of statues, towards the spot where Santa was known to appear. Celine was all business, having dealt with less than legitimate businessmen before when obtaining more exotic adventuring supplies, or finding a buyer for something unusually valuable she'd recovered from an ancient crumbling temple, or had just realised she shouldn't have removed from a temple that wasn't so disused, or from the crypt of a royal family who had living relatives and didn't particularly want their dead disturbed. (The Ethereal Queen remarked that, in all likelihood, she could easily have already met Santa Himself, knowingly or otherwise, or at least one of his many agents at one level or another of the chain of command.) 

Welch, meanwhile, almost bounced with excitement, as though she were a child who really believed she was about to meet Father Christmas. Of course, 'Santa' was only a nickname, and an ironic one at that. While the man was famously able to obtain your any and every desire, wherever in the galaxy you may be, however rare the item was, even managing to get you the goods at the exact time you most needed it, he certainly wasn't going to give anything to you for free. He believed that people should pay what things were worth and he specialised in some very rare and valuable goods. What was more, he didn't look anything like a jovial, kindly, fat old man. These days he usually wore a red winter cloak lined with white fur that did look quite festive. However, this was where the similarity ended; 'Santa' was a small, stooped individual, usually half-buried under merchant's packs, with a habit of hiding his face behind a grotesque white mask that made him look more like a killer clown than anything else. 

When he was on his Expel run, however, he chose a more traditional merchant's tunic, sandals and headscarf. He saw Expel's instance of the Maze as more of a home base for him, where he could relax a little. The younger woman looked a little disappointed in finding out that she would not literally be about to meet the spirit of Christmas (Gabriel didn't quite understand why she expected an alien planet where space flight hadn't been invented and most people worshipped, or were even directly aware of the presence of, Tria, to have heard of Christmas) but she was at least not screaming and running in terror from a wizened dwarf in a clown mask. Celine began talking business with him and after a while, Welch joined in, identifying materials and crafting tools she could make a better Handy Stick for herself with, as well as helping the symbologist to work out how much medical supplies they needed to replenish their stock and how much they could afford.

"See those jewels shaped like cute frogs, kid?" Santa asked Welch in a high-pitched, rasping voice, laughing at his own perceived joke in a manner than made the younger woman take a nervous step backwards, "Those ain't just pretty gifts. You focus a little symbological force into them, you'll be whisked out of here, back to the entrance you came in from. Great for if you run into trouble - and believe me, it only gets harder from here on out, much tougher!"

"How much for a Frog Jewel?" demanded Celine, waving a hand over the artifact and nodding in satisfaction as both the jewel and her hand glowed, indicating a genuine, powerful magical charge, and not any harmful kind either.

"For a pretty face? Three hundred thousand Fol. That's the cheapest you'll find them - do you know how much time it takes to make one, or what kind of ingredients you need?"

"That's still extortionate for a spellbinding of that power. Plus, I know damn well that's just a normal emerald. Anyway, we're two pretty faces, not just one."

The Ethereal Queen cackled and shoved another cake in her mouth, apparently amused by the ensuing bartering that grew ever more intense, with increasingly wild claims on both sides, as well as a lot of shouting and arm-waving. The observation windows couldn't quite manage smell-o-vision, so the two watchers couldn't tell if Celine was wearing Cinderella perfume, a common ploy for a woman who wanted to make herself seem more agreeable during negotiations, but she did seem to be bringing the merchant around to her point of view.

That was when a high-pitched screaming started that had nothing to do with overenthusiastic haggling.


	4. Chapter 4

"STAR FLARE!" screamed the same voice. The whole room lit up with flashes of blue flame and a sound like a million splinters of glass pouring like torrential rain. Several charred figures in burning thief's tunics and caps ran from behind the pillars in every direction, flailing and screaming in panic. From the nearest pillar to them, jumping to land a flurry of kicks and punches on the one thief who wasn't fast enough, came an equally terrified looking Rena.

"Boss! We're under attack!" yelled the thief who was currently being assaulted by the healer.

"He attacked me first!" Rena roared, thumping him on the head.

"Ow! Because you were loitering around, spying on our private business deal..."

"Excuse me, that would be our medic," said Celine, walking over to stand between Rena and the battered thief, already casting protective wards on both of them, "She's often lagging behind to mix potions and whatever, so by this point we don't notice. We're sorry, we had no idea it was going to cause so much trouble!"

"That kind of attitude's going to get you killed on the higher floors," Santa warned them, flashing sharp, pointed teeth with narrow, pale lips. Rena shuddered and aimed a hand at him. Recognising the beginnings of another Star Flare spell, Celine shook her head wand waved at the healer frantically. 

"Seriously, if you don't mind what you're doing and who's around you, you won't survive for two seconds up there," the merchant warned them. He'd already given the thieves a hand signal to stand down, for the ones retreating to return to their posts, for anyone on fire to stop running in circles so they could be treated by the ones who knew how to apply the healing herbs, while others put out the fires that were now raging among some particularly flammable crates of goods. Celine was impressed at how much their leader could convey at that speed using only hand gestures. She also felt a little bad for indirectly causing him to lose profits - she'd suggested the whole 'hiding behind a pillar' idea to Rena. The initial plan was for only Chisato...

"Where's Chisato?" she whispered to Rena. The healer scratched her head, shrugged and looked concerned.

"I saw her move ahead - she pointed to something behind the merchant that I couldn't see - that was about when I was spotted, then I panicked, sorry..."

"It's okay, they make everyone nervous," admitted Celine, "I can't see anything behind him but the wall... this is just the sort of place that would be full of hidden passageways, though..."

"Eh? Hidden passageways? There is no such thing on this floor! I thought I told you to listen carefully," Santa hissed, "As I was saying, the things that look like hourglasses, if you see one, you need to run, straight away! And those birds as well, the ones who can throw their feathers like knives..."

Suddenly, his tirade was interrupted by a klaxon alarm, then the dungeon's lighting flashed red for a moment. 

*INTERDIMENSIONAL BREACH WARNING*, said a calm but insistent voice over a tannoy hidden somewhere in the roof's tiling, *UNAUTHORISED ENTRY OR EXIT THROUGH UNALLOCATED PORTAL. FLOOR LOCKDOWN IMMINENT.*

"What in Tria's name?" demanded Celine. One of the Thieves, an individual they hadn't spotted before, ran from the direction Chisato was supposed to have gone in, then whispered something to his boss.

"I'll tell you what it means," snapped Santa, "It means someone - probably another of you, you little shits - has just sneaked into my workshop while you distracted me!"

"I thought you said there was no secret passage on this floor," Celine glared at Santa, who looked equally unamused back at her.

"Thieves lie," he snapped, "And its none of your business anyway. And you're not supposed to be able to get through that door. Its part of my entrance to this realm, from my domain - another instance of the Labyrinth. Visitors are not supposed to be able to cross over instances!"

"Looks like you didn't lock it tight enough," the symbologist replied.

"Well, excuse me for not being able to secure my property from people who can break the laws of time and space!"

Celine shrugged, "It's a reporter thing, I think."

"Or it might be because she's from Nede," volunteered Rena, "Although I can't see any secret door myself."

"Its sealed now," Santa sighed, pressing a button on a device he'd retrieved from the folds of his kaftan. With a loud, ugly alert noise, a light on the ceiling flashed red again. Nothing else happened. Santa made a noise that was probably not a compliment in the language it was from, which could be anywhere in the galaxy for all the party knew, "It won't even open for the person its supposed to let in. It really has gone into lockdown. Not surprising - this could be an interdimensional invader for all the system knows!"

"It said the floor is locked down," said Rena, "Does that mean none of us can get in or out?"

"It'll be locking down in sections, so we might just make it out if we run for the door upstairs now," theorised Santa, "There's a very small chance the transporters higher up might still be working. Not that it does me any good..."

"The Frog Jewel isn't working," complained Welch.

"What... why would you even try that? You don't know what effect a hard teleport could have when the system is disrupted and locking down!" the merchant snapped, "Stop just trying to run in and out of places, you've already seen what trouble you people have already caused!"

"We can't just stand here arguing, we'll all be locked in here!" said Rena, darting for the door that led to the stairs above.

"Hey, no running off alone," complained Rena, sprinting after her. The door opened for them and Celine didn't see them come back out.

"Didn't I just warn them about that floor?" Santa sighed.

"I'd better be going too," Celine told him, "I'm sorry about the trouble we've caused. We had no idea this could happen and I'm not sure we could even stop Chisato doing whatever she wanted anyway, but we'll try and fix it now. Even if we have to clear the whole Maze right now to win our way out!"

"Good luck with that," he said, "I can't leave my business behind. My goods, my staff, my whole life is here and I'll never pack it all up in time."

"I could lighten the load for you if you want to donate to a band of heroic adventurers..."

Santa politely told her where she could shove her magic wand.

"Well, that's not nice," she pouted, "Considering we're about to save YOUR ass here and your extortionate prices bankrupted us in the first..."

"Door's closing! GO!" yelled the merchant. The lights began flashing again and another siren sounded. Celine ran for the door, half-rolled, half-teleported under the shutters just before they closed, then blinked from the top of the stairs to the bottom. As Santa had warned her, there was a lot of interference in the ether that made her feel dizzy and nauseous when she teleported, a storm of static and white noise filling her head. She fell over straight into Welch, who screamed and jabbed her in the stomach with the Handy Stick before they finally stopped panicking and recognised each other as friends, not random encounters or demons from the void between space.

"Celine, the hourglass things are real!" hissed Rena, "I can see their silhouettes! I can hear them TICKING!"

"Relax, nothing can move quicker than you can cast Star Flare," the symbologist reminded her, "If it comes down to it, I have a few of those Smoke Bombs left that Precis made for me."

"We can't go forward, though..."

"Well, we can't get back down now," said Celine, jerking the handle up and down to demonstrate that the door no longer worked. 

"But what about Chisato?"

"Chisato didn't just go through a normal door, by the sounds of it. It doesn't sound as if we could just follow her through even if we wanted to."

“We can’t just abandon a friend!”

“Guys, I think I have some idea what we can do. At least, It might work,” muttered Welch.

“I’ll give anything a try by this point,” replied Rena.

“I’m aware of other dimensions and can sort of move between them but it takes a lot of time and preparation,” said Welch, “We know one other person who can cross dimensions and who can even affect this world with her will to a certain extent – and we know they’re almost certainly here right now. They’re not very good at it so they might not have been able to get free entirely yet – but if we co-operate, we might be able to pool our powers!”

“What are you talking about, Welch? You don’t mean...”

“Yeah, I’m sorry but we’re gonna have to talk to that jerk Puffy again,” Welch sighed, “At least I definitely remember her saying she was going upwards!”


	5. Chapter 5

They had been cautious earlier when going through the Maze, once they found out firsthand how much tougher the trials here would be compared to anything they'd encountered before. Now they were down one member of their adventuring party and they were about to venture into an area they'd been warned, by a merchant who was completely untrustworthy but also had a vested interest in them surviving, was going to be a significant leap in difficulty. They walked slowly and quietly down the vast corridors of the labyrinth, the silence eerie except for the echoing, rhythmic tick-tocks that followed them everywhere, inexorable as time itself. After a while, the three women found themselves becoming more irritable and snappy every second they heard the ticking, until it was in itself a distraction when they were trying to look around every corner and in all directions at once, so they eventually agreed to play a song on the musical instruments they carried around with them, a mournful, slightly eerie tune that seemed to discourage the roving packs of monsters from going near them. Gabriel Celesta had also spotted them applying a blue-green lotion to themselves, something he recognised as the commonly used monster-repellant scent known as Fairy Cologne. They were avoiding as many encounters as possible, he realised - with one of their band missing, possibly in serious trouble right now, they couldn't afford to spend time training themselves up further, even if they thought they would actually survive with only three of them. 

Even with the utmost caution, they were still caught out once or twice. The perfume only lasted so long, the musicians requiring rest in-between loops of the tune. The hourglass things appeared, as well as the birds who could fling clouds of razor-sharp feathers and a team of elite footpads from the clan of thieves, now cut off from their master and, without any new orders for a while, had defaulted to their more general task of waylaying intruders and taking their belongings. These rogues were fast, dropping in from hidden alcoves in the walls and ceiling, and Chisato had been carrying the blade that was specialised for fighting them, an enchanted weapon created by the Lacour military to keep the thieves away from inhabited areas. Now she was gone, the weapon was gone too, so they simply had to be even faster, making sure never to be ambushed or surrounded. 

Even worse were the hourglass-things; as Santa had described, the strange constructs had an ability to stop time for everything except themselves and the mages who seemed to be controlling them, and who could often cast three or four major attack spells in the few seconds that time was frozen for the party. Rena had barely escaped with her life, and only because of the bottle of Purple Smoke that allowed her to retreat almost instantaneously from battle. They were still running out of healing items to repair the damage with, once they were safely around the corner. Tensions were running high as well - Welch had now accused Rena of trying to leave her behind three times now, allegedly because Claude was 'obviously' going to leave her for Welch. 

As far as the two onlookers could tell, neither Celine nor Welch realised that Rena was pregnant, although the woman herself probably did, being a competent healer. 

"They're doing surprisingly well, considering," mused the Ethereal Queen, "Maybe you'll get your fight with them after all."

"Will you stop being so amused by all of this?" yelled Gabriel, "They've breached the barrier between instances! They could cause leakage!"

"The barriers came down, didn't they?" she yawned, placing a hand to her mouth.

"Not before one of them made it through!" he yelled, "It's the reporter as well, she'll probably tell everybody!"

"It's not like she can get back again. She just lucked out, diving through that door just before it closed like that. Tria, she'll probably get eaten by whatever's guarding old Santa's lair anyway," she yawned again, "I thought you were the one urging lenience to me earlier. Why do you suddenly feel so threatened by whatever it is they're doing?"

"Because I had no idea it would turn out like this. They've already done something that should be impossible to them - and don't tell me it was just lucky timing, those would be some astronomically long odds - they've disrupted trade throughout the labyrinth, that Welch seems aware of what she's doing and I heard her say she was planning to meet up with Puffy now. The two of them together will be even worse!"

"They said they're looking a way out of the mess they're in," said the Queen, "Its understandable. I genuinely don't think they meant to do any of this. I just hope they don't break things even more trying to fix it."

“We can’t just leave it to chance. I think they’ve caused enough trouble that we ‘re justified in directly intervening by now,” said Gabriel. 

"And do what? Kick them out? Kill them?"

"If they leave, they'll only tell everyone what happened," he frowned, "And killing them could cause further problems with the system, with one of them still missing. We have to keep everything in the order its meant to happen in, running as seamlessly as possible. If they can correct their own mistakes like they claim they're trying to, it might be better to let them. This might be a good test for them."

"You might want to help them, then, if you want them to ever get off this floor alive. The boss is coming up soon."

* * *

Upon solving the puzzle to open the door, a simple matter of alchemically crafting an item that had been laid on a plinth into the key, they discovered that the floor's guardian wasn't there. 

Surprise turned to relief, as they were in no condition to fight a trained Barchian that had been artificially grown to an enormous size, then swiftly mutated into a deep suspicion that grew into something almost as stressful as having the boss there in front of them to fight, where they could tell where it was and how powerful exactly it was, maybe plan their assault beforehand if they were given time.

"It's on the ceiling," said Welch, "High up where we can't see it. Or its been following us the whole time and is gonna come through that door and trap us."

"The travel notes say its supposed to be a Barchian," said Celine, "Something that big and heavy wouldn't fit on a ceiling. Or through that door."

"How'd they get it in there then?" Welch looked doubtfully up at the small locked side door where, if the floor was built like all the others, exit to a flight of stairs leading upwards would be possible.

"The same way Chisato's missiles get in here. You think if I was an expert on mystical labyrinth architecture I wouldn't have my own mage's tower staffed by a team of gorgeous Incubi?" she chuckled at the reaction on Welch's face, "Seriously, though, I agree this is obviously a trap. Its too good to be true. The question is, what do we do about it?"

"The door to the stairs is unlocked," Rena reported, turning the handle and pulling open said door. Nothing exploded or leapt out at them.

"Are you insane?" snapped Celine, "Even if there was really nothing here, you don't know if there are any traps and the door would be an obvious place to put them!"

"Exactly. It wouldn't be in the obvious place," reasoned the healer, "This isn't an obvious floor, is it? Or there'd be a boss, like every other floor. Besides, I think I know why this floor is missing its boss."

"Because the regular monsters were hell enough and they thought they'd let us off?" asked Welch hopefully.

"No, didn't you say your friend was on the next floor? And didn't she mess with the contents of the labyrinth once already?"

"Puffy adds her own stuff, she doesn't remove things to make it easier," Welch shook her head.

"She did at first, but then she was having trouble controlling the extra monsters and she realised she was kind of vulnerable in this place too. If I were here, I'd start trying to make things easier for myself - even if it made things easier for the people I was trying to annoy!" said Rena, "Assuming she hasn't given up trying to bother us and started focusing on her own survival now."

"If she was going to do that, wouldn't she just leave?"

"I don't think its that easy for her, or she'd have left as soon as the monster turned on her," said Rena, "And she couldn't have predicted the lockdown, so she might well be trapped in it too."

"I think you're being way too nice to her, assuming she isn't throwing a fit somewhere and about to take it out on us even more," said Welch, "Even if it wouldn't make sense for her own survival... I don't think she's all that bright. I mean, she's got some kind of god-like power and she keeps using it for childish pranks instead of ruling over her own pocket Universe."

"... Both of you worry me sometimes, you know that?" Rena admitted, looking at the would-be evil sorceress-Queen and petty demigoddess, "But I still don't see any way to go except up. Unless you want to sit here until the boss comes back from its loo break or whatever it went off to do."

"They usually leave a mini-boss in charge when they..." Celine sighed and tried to avoid Rena's increasingly worried look, "You're right, though. This is a perfect place for a rest but we should really eat a meal, then head onwards straight away."

They ate one of their dwindling supply of lunchbox meals cooked expertly by Rena, then applied healing herbs and magic as required, before heading off up the stairs. They didn't see any sign of Puffy right away, until they reached the central clearing, where several statues of various aspects of Tria, as her chaotic, endlessly creative self, had been laid out in a semicircle around a locked boss door. There was a smaller statue right in front of the door, with a plate laid in its outstretched hands for offerings. As soon as Rena walked up to this statue, fumbling around in her coin purse for loose change, a high-pitched female voice rang out. Its melodramatic attempt to sound majestic and slightly menacing did, admittedly, fit this particular statue, which had a child-like, almost cherubic appearance, with pointed earlobes and sharp fangs that suggested it was a goblin or imp rather than a human child. Rena wondered if it was an early depiction of the Demon Chef Yarma.

"Take heed, travellers!" the cackling voice boomed, "You shall not pass beyond this point until you offer up unto the Food God, the finest cuisine in all the land!"

"Seriously, a cooking trial?" Celine sighed, "What next, do you want to do a little song and dance for you?"

"No, that's the next floor," said the voice, "Um, or was it back on floor four?"

"Your voice slipped," Rena told the voice.

"Oh, balls... can we start again?"

* * *

"I know its you, Puffy, get out from wherever you're hiding or I'll scrape you out with this stick," demanded Welch, placing one hand on her hip while brandishing her Handy Stick with the other, pointing it right at the Food God's nose. 

"Well, I might as well, you've ruined the whole atmosphere now!"

They heard an increasingly loud rattling, like some fumbling with a lock, accompanied by a tirade of invectives that Rena was embarrassed to hear come out of the mouth of someone she knew to be a girl younger than her. After a while, the rattling stopped and a large, heavy shutter rumbled away then slammed open. From a panel in the back of the Food God statue, a girl in a short-sleeved, ruffled dark blue dress stumbled, her long greenish-blonde curly hair a complete mess. She glared at them with barely restrained fury from behind long dark eyelashes, her brown eyes wide, like a hissing feral cat.

"The whole place is going to hell and you have nothing better to do than steal food?" asked Welch, both hands on hips now.

"Seriously, how does this thing even work? Why does it have a slot? Is there always someone there eating the food? Or does it just collect in there rotting until someone opens it?" Celine poked the statue through the slot in the mouth with her staff. Rena glared at her.

"You'd just told me off for doing that exact same thing!" she hissed.

"Stop ignoring me!" Puffy roared. Then she sighed, deflated, her head held low, "To tell the truth, I was hiding."

"Hiding from what? Did you lose control of something else you summoned?" demanded Welch.

"No, I haven't tried again. I... I was trying to keep myself hidden, to open doors and lure monsters away and stuff. It was working, then there was that loud alarm and the flashing lights and I freaked out. Now all the monsters are more aggressive and I can't warp away and I don't think I can get out at all any more," she stammered, then started sniffling. She looked just about ready to burst into tears.

"If its any consolation, the monsters don't seem all that aggressive downstairs and the boss still hasn't come back. I'm guessing that was your handiwork?" asked Celine, suddenly feeling bad for upsetting a small child, despite all the trouble said small child had managed to cause already and the fact that Celine hadn't in any way been the cause of Puffy's distress. Welch did not look quite as sympathetic.

Puffy nodded, sniffing, "I wanted to do this floor too but I really tired myself out more than I meant to. I had to find somewhere to rest, then I found this hiding place.. I… er… made up the thing about it being a Food God statue, by the way. I don’t know what it was supposed to be. It was completely empty.”

“So, probably just a donation box, then,” Celine sighed, “Still, this really is an odd place.”

“I don’t think its working the way its supposed to, is all. I might have messed something up,” Puffy admitted, “I probably should have started with something less complicated and important.”

“Well, you’re still the person most likely to be able to get us out of here,” said Welch, “What do you say we team up and work together for a while?”


	6. Chapter 6

Chisato switched on the torch function on her communicator and stepped into the darkened warehouse.

Since darting through the door she'd seen open up for a fraction of a second, a secret panel in the wall behind Santa's market stall sliding away to reveal another storage room full of crates, she'd first stepped into a fairly familiar scene, very similar to the room she'd just left. This room was bustling with Thieves hauling the crates in and out of the room, through the secret door or into another room even further back. The far door was a lot more obvious and opened automatically when a forklift truck trundled through it. Chisato hid behind the pile of crates that people seemed to be adding to, hoping they wouldn't suddenly decide it all needed moving. She watched a team of three people pry open one of the crates and inspect the contents, presumably to make sure it contained what it was supposed to. They whistled as they pulled out a stack of Orichalcum bullion bars. Still a Thief despite being forced into a semblance or organisation by the notorious Santa, the nearest man tried to surreptitiously pocket one of the bars. He was promptly smacked on the head by his supervisor until he returned their goods. 

All in all, it was exactly what she had expected to see and not particularly interesting. She snapped a couple of pictures, then darted around the back of the crates and through the door as soon as the team was distracted by another argument. 

This was when the alarms went off and the lights started flashing red. 

She'd initially assumed she'd been discovered. She took out her stun gun, reaching into her pocket full of flaming business cards with the other hand. Her instinct was to hide in the corner of the room, amongst the contents of the nearest shelf in the huge warehouse, but she was prepared to fight her way out if needs be. Maybe she could even startle them into answering some rapid-fire questions before she ran for it if she surprised them before they tracked her down. 

After a couple of seconds, she realised she hadn't been caught after all: there was nobody in this room except her and one, admittedly formidable-looking security robot that was heading in the opposite direction, clearly responding to something that didn't appear to be her. Had she timed it just as something else was happening?

She waited a few more minutes just to make sure nobody had spotted her. Startled by the noise, another gang of Thieves ran into the warehouse and had a quick search around. The drone reappeared and shone a beam of green light that she guessed was some sort of scanning device. Chisato took out her communicator and typed furiously, activating the program that scrambled most scanning signals short of Nedian Defence Force sensors. Clearly spotting nothing, the drone hovered above the workers as they picked up another crate and carried it into the Maze - or tried to.

The door was no longer working. Yells of panic resounded through the vast chamber as they tried everything - the unlock code, the emergency override, kicking it, even firing the drone's lasers and missiles at it - and it all failed. They couldn't get out and presumably their boss couldn't get in. Knowing a man like Santa, they'd probably be blamed for it somehow and punished severely. 

Not waiting any longer despite her own growing concerns that she was now trapped in a strange place, separated from the rest of her party, Chisato took advantage of the commotion and ran through the door, further into the facility.

* * *

"I must warn you," said Puffy, "I don't actually know how this works."

Celine rolled her eyes, "Just great!"

Puffy placed her hands on her hips, "Do you know how it works, then? I didn't think so! At least I'm fairly sure I CAN do it! I don't think any of you can even try, except maybe Welch here, and her powers are really weak!"

"But what I can do, doesn't cause a whole load of trouble for everyone," Welch smirked.

"I'm sorry, but I still have no idea what it is you're actually doing," admitted Rena, a frown of concern on her face, "You say you're... from another dimension? Or going to another dimension? And that's where we'll find Chisato?"

"A little of all three," said Welch, "Um... how do I explain this? Nede used to be a planet, right? But when we went, they'd evacuated everyone into a world made entirely out of energy."

She nodded, "I always wondered how that even works. I know they have some very powerful symbology but that sounds more like the domain of Tria!"

"It's nothing like on the scale of the actual Gods but, where Puffy and I came from originally, its... like a place where we can do that in your dimension a lot more easily. Not because we're more powerful, just because we live a level above your reality, where your world doesn't quite feel real, like we only dream that we're there."

"You still have to know how to do it, though, and have the symbological talent," said Puffy, "We can both travel from our dimension to yours but Welch can't quite use her energy to change things here, while I can."

"We've been to different times and places that we shouldn't normally be able to get into," explained Welch, "Like we did in Nede, like you did when you first came to Expel and we all did when we evacuated Nede. Actually, we're doing the same thing by being here but its a little more complicated. This Maze is a dimension of its own, and quite a high level one at that, one we really shouldn't be messing with, Puffy."

"I'm sorry," Puffy muttered, "I didn't know."

"Anyway, we think Chisato managed to get out of this dimension and into one she shouldn't," said Welch, "Anyone can go in and out through the door in their own world but there are lots of doors, from lots of places and times, at different levels of realities. It shouldn't normally be possible for you to go through someone else's door at all. It'd be very hard and I think possibly illegal for either of us to do it."

"But combined, we might be able to do it," said Puffy, "Although I guess it'd still be illegal. Sorry," she repeated.

"And Chisato has somehow done this even though she has no way of doing it at all," muttered Celine, "Trust her to find some way of breaking and entering into somewhere, whatever the situation. We can't take her anywhere!"

"Its possible that she had access to a holdover from the technology used to create Energy Nede," said Welch, "If such a thing existed there, it'd be Chisato who would find it."

"I bet the Ten Wise Men had it," suggested Celine, "And they wouldn't care at all if it was illegal or whatever. Are... are we still going to be able to save Chisato?"

"We'll try everything we can," promised Welch. Puffy nodded in agreement.

On the other side of the security cameras, two grudgingly impressed but now increasingly worried Final Guardians of the Labyrinth exchanged a look, nodded in unison, then disappeared.


	7. Chapter 7

The shutter on the side of the metal crate slid open and its contents began to spill out. Chisato flinched at the resulting clatter of plastic and metal objects striking each other, a racket that threatened to alert a guard. The entire staff of the facility were still too preoccupied with the sealed door that could no longer be opened - separating them from their boss and an entire month's worth of new merchandise - to care about a lone intruder. She'd almost run into a couple of security drones but had managed to jump back into the shadows until the machines were eventually recalled to help with the latest effort to force the door open. The clearly illicit facility had many shadows, many alcoves and hidden compartments, as well as the usual gantries and scaffolding, access hatches and lifting equipment for transporting all sorts of things from one warehouse room to another. It had required quite a lot of clambering around on railings and ladders while trying to stay as quiet and possible, occasionally having to hack a door's electronic lock to let her in, but she'd been able to travel the length of the warehouse section, at least, without running into any people.

As far as she could tell from the apparatus and terminals lining the walls, this was a space station or maybe a large, slow moving spaceship. There was no map of the facility in relation to anywhere else, only a few of the very confusingly laid out interior that even the staff didn't understand, so she could be anywhere in space. This gave her hope that she was in a place she'd eventually be able to leave, even if she had to steal an escape shuttle. She didn't actually know how to fly a space shuttle but all the ones she remembered could practically fly themselves - they had to be used to evacuate children and very injured people, after all. She just hoped that these space pirates, or whatever they really were, had at least some health and safety standards.

That said, he wasn't sure where she was going to go after she'd escaped, or what she would do. She reckoned that the shuttle would be programmed to know where Expel was - after all, these people regularly traded with Expel. 

The only problem was, she wasn't sure she actually wanted to return to Expel. She felt bad for her friends, who were probably worried sick about her, especially Rena. She resolved that she would at least try and get a message sent back to them, to let them know she was fine and had simply parted ways to go and chase her own concerns. She'd never felt at home on Expel, ever since fleeing Nede. The underdeveloped planet life wasn't for her - she was a modern conveniences sort of woman. Her entire life had been about a style of journalism, reporting and research that, while it existed in a simple form on Expel, did not require her specific skills there. For example, there were only very primitive computers on Expel, mostly in facilities like Leon's workplace in the royal laboratory, or experimentally built by oddball geniuses like Precis. 

Besides, she wasn't utterly unconvinced everything from her old life was gone. For a start, there was the matter of her tear gas and homing missile beacons still working. Energy Nede was irrefutably destroyed but those weapons systems teleported in from a satellite somewhere - she'd assumed in orbit around the fake planet but apparently it was either large and powerful enough or positioned strategically in the middle of enough things that it could transmit anywhere she went. This meant that other Nedean facilities outside the home world still existed, despite the Federation's claim that they had withdrawn from the rest of the galaxy before sealing themselves away. It might not even have been their fault, mused Chisato - Nede's presence was far-reaching, scattered and divided in their personal agendas enough that remnants could hide in hundreds of places if they wanted to. 

Whatever the truth, as always, she felt a duty, no, a burning need, a divine calling, to find out. Especially if it meant she might have friends still alive out there.

There was also the immediate goal of uncovering exactly how shady this intergalactic operation was. She'd been following a trail of increasingly high energy readings along a silent corridor with more warnings, hazard symbols and 'No Entry' signs on it than usual. She'd had to hack the door again and was now starting to worry that someone might notice all these suddenly unlocked, restricted authorisation doors. Eventually, after there'd been no way to avoid it and she was aware of how close she was to the source of the signals, she'd been forced to engage a security drone, a small spider-like tank with a trio of Gatling lasers. A volley of micro-missiles to the weak spots in the armour, as well as a flurry of kicks with her mithril-tipped high heeled boots, took the robot out of operation before it could fire off a single laser. She stopped for a second to wonder how in Tria's name the missiles still worked, then she hauled the wreckage of the robot into the nearest alcove that it actually fit in, grunting with the effort, biting off a swear word when the legs kept clanging against the sides of the railings. When she'd finished making at least some effort to cover her tracks, although it wasn't really working as the legs fell straight out and dangled over the ledge, spraying sparks everywhere, she ran into the far room, using a sensor she'd pulled off the robot to trick the door into thinking she was it.

That's when she'd seen the crates, all gleaming new, silvery-white metal. They matched the decor of this room, surprisingly clean and white, a curved chamber ringed with shelves for the crates and desks next to them. Unidentifiable machines sat on the desks, probably some sort of computers with monitors but not a model Chisato had ever seen before. Chairs were also arranged at every desk, so she took the opportunity to sit down while opening a crate she'd lifted off the desk. They didn't really seem that heavy - whatever they were, they were marked 'fragile' but no other warnings were present on them.

The white plastic objects that fell out matched the computers, probably peripherals for them. They seemed molded to the shape of a humanoid hand, more or less, and ended in thick cables that plugged into connectors matching the ports on the computers. It was all very unremarkable for a room that was significantly more secure than the warehouse full of weaponry she'd passed through on the way in.

It was also giving off high energy readings like crazy.

The design was nothing like Nedian technology and it took Chisato a few moments to remember where she'd seen something like this before - they'd been alive, flying around in swarms. Usually they'd been hostile, attacking people on sight, quite dangerous in the numbers they usually appeared in. She'd realised they were synthetically engineered at some point, in the same way as most Psynards were, and that some of their component parts were mechanical, probably even more than a Psynard. She felt the weight of the Controller, as Noel had called the tiny ray-like flying things, balanced in her hand, wire dangling limply, and wondered if these were dead or at least heavily tranquilised. Her energy reader would have been able to differentiate living from non-living energy sources. The only readings here were very high but quite stable and contained, and not living in the slightest. She supposed it could be fashioned from the shell of one, or even just shaped like one, as many machines were designed in ways inspired by animals that could naturally perform the same function. 

There was only way she could really satisfy her curiosity here and now, she realised. It was almost suicidally reckless but no more so than everything she'd done here since she'd decided to make a dash through that door. It couldn't be a coincidence that the shape on the end of the Controller's tail perfectly slotted into the port on the front of the small white computer-like device. She pushed the Controller in until it felt firmly attached, then, when nothing apocalyptic happened, or really much of anything at all, she pressed the buttons on the front of the device until one of them caused the whole thing to light up and start whirring as though something spun around and around inside it. This caused a logo to swirl onto the previously blank screen, accompanied by a melodic little fanfare, then...

With a sound like a raging lightning storm, then everything behind her exploded into a maelstrom of dark purple, red and black chaotic energy, crackling, roaring and surging dangerously. From within the void stepped her three companions and Puffy.


	8. Chapter 8

Hearing the yells of her friends over the raucous din of the void proved to be difficult. Rena was gesturing at her to run towards the portal, a look of urgency on her face. Welch's rapt concentration and sweeping arm (and handy stick) gestures like a conductor for a grand orchestra told Chisato that she was probably controlling whatever process they used to make the portal. Puffy also seemed to be joining in this ritual but then her eyes snapped wide open, she stared at the device with the controller plugged into it, then she began running towards it. Celine grabbed her by the arm and began admonishing her, starting off a furious argument. The reporter also looked back at the device, which had started playing a looped video of - for some reason - the legendary Valkyrie Lenneth, soaring majestically through the air, showing off her ethereal beauty. 

Chisato blinked. The myths of the Valkyries implied deities other than Tria and so were not generally believed on Nede - in their experience, people pretending to be deities were usually conquerors with superior technology trying to win a relatively bloodless victory by conning the primitive locals. Nede themselves had used the tactic repeatedly, although it took people like Chisato to uncover any of this secret history - to the average citizen, it was the sort of thing done by Bad People like the Ten Wise Men.

Puffy eventually broke free of Celine's grip and ran out of the portal, pursued by the symbologist.

"What's this doing here?" demanded Puffy, grabbing the controller, "It's from 4D space - it's an antique but it still works." 

"Whatever it is, its not worth it, Puffy, you're supposed to be holding that portal."

"You don't understand. You're supposed to interact with this dimension using it, not bring it down here. Its so dangerous, it's got to be VERY illegal!"

"I don't think anything in here is legal," Chisato told her.

"If its dangerous, stop messing with it," hissed Celine, "Chisato, can you grab that thing, or at least switch it off?"

"There's a whole box of them," said the reporter, "The controllers, anyway. I can't see any other machines. Not that I actually know how to disconnect the machine safely..."

"Turning it off could be dangerous too," said Puffy, "Tria, it could be hosting this place!"

"We've got to think of our friends first!" snapped Celine.

Chisato shook her head, "Look, if this is a thing we need to deal with now, I didn't really want to go back anyway..."

"What do you mean, you don't want to..." Celine yelled. 

That was when Welch let out a scream. The portal rippled, flaring in a corona of dark purple energy crackling with black and red veins of screaming dark matter. Rena grabbed Welch and leapt out of the portal just before the black snarls spilled out into the whole void like an angry giant toddler's fevered crayon scrawls.

"It's too unstable to go through now," reported Celine, "You two need to close it before it explodes."

"Explode? That thing's going to explode and you brought it here?" screamed Chisato.

"No, no, it won't, because we can totally fix it," stammered Welch, not sounding the slightest bit confident or convincing. Puffy began chanting and waving her hands around theatrically. Energy patterns not dissimilar to those flowing from the 4D interface machine started coalescing around her, except that, while the machine was a stable water-like ripple of blue, Puffy's was closer in colour and pattern to the void that screamed like a hurricane. Her own aura reached out to touch the void, then encircled it in a red glowing membrane that seemed to contain it and mold it into a more stable shape, wobbling and straining against it bonds but still contained, like a writhing amoeba. 

Celine started yelling again and began the incantation for a Meteor Shower spell, while Rena quickly threw force shields over everyone, when the energy inside the membrane collapsed into an utter, light-devouring darkness except for one thin line of purple and red lightning. There was another Universe-splitting shriek, then it opened wide again, throwing off Puffy's shields, except that it now looked stable again of its own will, and other things were coming through it.

Huge, bestial things with claws and teeth as big as Welch's Handy Stick swarmed through the portal, a whole pack of them, slavering and roaring and swiping at each other in the frenzied rush to kill and devour the prey of the new world they'd been suddenly released into.

"Yeah, totally," Welch repeated, brandishing her weapon and running into the fray, "We got this!"

"What ARE those things?" demanded Chisato, "Aren't they the things you summoned earlier, Puffy, when we were enemies?"

"I only summoned one," the girl gulped, "I'm not doing this on purpose, you've got to believe me! I... I was acting like I was creating them myself 'cause it was part of the game - I like being the Gamesmaster - but I just know how to reach into the place where they live."

"It looks like a dark creation energy plane," Chisato frowned, "Doctor Lantis was experimenting with those as part of... you know... it went badly, anyway..."

"I know its not nice but my head goes to not nice places a lot, I just get so angry and frustrated and..."

"But can you close it?" snapped Celine, hurling an Explode spell into the portal, spreading a conflagration that immolated three of the creatures. Welch smacked another one in the head with her stick, desperately lunging from side to side to avoid its slashing claws. Another of them roared and jumped from the portal, breathing a miasma of green flames. Rena hurled three Star Flares at it before anyone else could blink.

They were surviving, noted Chisato, barely, and this was just the first wave. They were stronger now than they had been at the start of this ill-fated trek up the labyrinth but not that much stronger, and they had only fought one back then. They had wielded at least one weapon designed specifically to kill these things, too. Chisato couldn't remember where she'd put it. She'd swapped it out a while ago for the blade designed to kill the Thieves. Under their own power, they couldn't hold out for longer than three seconds. The Phantom Chimeras were still streaming from a portal that showed no signs of closing. If the place on the other side was what Chisato suspected it was, there could be a lot worse things in there than the Chimeras.

The only thing they definitely had on their side was the girl who should be able to close the portal, except she was panicked and low on mana. Chisato could fix the latter problem, maybe the first up to a point. Digging into her backpack, she took out a few potions and shoved them in Puffy's hands. 

"Purple one restores mana, smelly one is relaxing," she said, turning to the controller, "Now, do you know of anything I can do to help with this?"

"What? No, we can only use that in the greatest emergency," warned Puffy, fumbling with the cork on the purple potion bottle.

"And this isn't an emergency?"

"Compared to what could happen if your plan goes wrong..."

"Can't we just run?" suggested Chisato, "I think I know where the shuttles are..."

"I can't leave a portal like that open near a machine like this!" protested Puffy.

"Rig the place to explode, then run?" 

Puffy was about to retort with what exactly she thought of that idea, when another noise ran out, even more deafening than the crackling of the portal and the roaring of the beasts.

The clarion call of an angelic trumpet.


	9. Chapter 9

With the third blast of the trumpet, a second portal opened up, only briefly but long enough for Chisato to catch a glimpse of the scene behind it, a vast chamber made of perfect cubes of sandstone, each one towering over a human, engraved with elaborate circular rows of strangely angular symbological runes. It was not dissimilar to the Maze of Tribulations but there was something markedly different about it she couldn't put her finger on - maybe it just seemed even more vast in scale, the energy flowing through the ether more intense... 

With the seventh, the figure spun through the air, faster than the reporter could follow with her camera, then the portal closed behind her in an instant. She had met the first enemy by the ninth note, then, with one flourish of her weapon, a crescent moon shaped blade on a pole that spun around her body as she twirled, her lithe arms directing it in graceful but lethally powerful arcs, she sliced through two of the Chimeras in an instant. Trails of black light crackling with dark purple energy lingered in the air where the godly weapon had nearly cut through the fabric of all matter. The two enemies disintegrated under the crushing force of her dark magic, then imploded in a localised, perfectly stable black hole. 

By the twelfth note, she darted straight towards the dark portal like a comet of antimatter, twirling her blade this way and that, every blow connecting and slicing through her prey, leaving behind clouds of purple stardust that surrounded her in an amethyst corona of glittering dark-light. For a split second, she hung there, incanting something in a language Chisato didn't understand. The reporter finally had a chance to see her (probably) rescuer. Tall, graceful, agelessly beautiful, her golden hair flowing freely down her shoulders, she wore a short-sleeved, heavily ruffled black velvet shirt over long white skirts, all trimmed with gold lace. Her rather outlandish outfit was completed by matching black gloves and wristbands with white lace, as well as a golden belt around her waist shaped like a padlock engraved with a wide open eye. Around her head floated a solid gold halo with similar eyes engraved into it. Her green-eyed gaze was feline, predatory, as she looked at the Phantoms that continued to pour out of the rift, winked at them, then raised her staff and unleashed a Star Flare spell that eclipsed anything that Chisato had ever seen Rena, who cast it obsessively, could ever produce. It was almost instantaneously followed by another, then another, hitting with the force of a billion stars going supernova, somehow controlled enough not to tear apart space and time around them all. In the screaming flashes of blue, Chisato followed her freeze-framed image, as though a whole galaxy of photographers snapped her with the flash on, until the angel of Tria incarnate - that was the only thing she could be - appeared on the other side of the room, cutting down several escaping stragglers that nobody else had spotted.

With a look bordering annoyance, she pointed her staff at the portal and began casting again.

"You two pests!" she called over her shoulder, pointing at Welch and Puffy, then at the machine that still showed the same scenes of Valkyries soaring through the sky of a war-torn ancient land, "Back me up! Press start, load, the most recent save, NOW! You, get a second controller plugged in, its not a two player game but you can transfer energy through it."

"Uh..." Chisato stammered, in a very rare moment of being lost for words, "D... does that say...?"

"Seraphic Gate, yes. And for Tria's sake, no more portal trespassing! Not in there, of all places!"

A hundred and one questions clamored in her head, all demanding to be asked first, or else mating to produce even more questions. Unable to process any of them, Chisato just stared - at the swarm of shadowy Chimerae that retreated through their portal, at the lattice of red strands of energy, like a wireframe model of the Universe and the progress of its creation, that now surrounded the portal, which was already shrinking, unravelling like snarls of cosmic string being cut back. She looked around at Welch and Puffy, both clutching their controllers, Welch operating the machine and Puffy sat in meditation, blue creation energy pouring from her into Chisato, into the machine that also fed energy into both of them, in a network that was the exact shape of the sacred three interlocking triangles of the Goddess Tria.

The artwork, the music that accompanied the images on the screen, the majestic grandeur of the whole thing, were a picture of divine beauty. When it was over, only a few seconds later, Chisato Madison was left silent. 

The shadowy portal was gone and now another portal back to the Seraphic gate - Chisato now recognised it as the same place represented by the image on the screen - hung in the air. This portal was stable, calm, perfectly under its opener's control.

The angel rubbed her hands together in satisfaction, hefted her staff over her shoulder, then regarded them all with an only slightly less dangerous glance.

“Now, for Tria’s sake, can you please go wherever you’re actually meant to be?” she demanded, a slight growl to her voice.

“I… I don’t know where that is,” admitted Puffy, staring forlornly down at her controller. 

“I know where I’m going – for a hot bath, an entire pan of rabbit stew, then my bed for a day straight,” announced Celine, dusting down her once white travelling robes, “No idea how to get there, though, to be honest.”

“I can give you a lift to Expel. Fortunately, it has its own terminal and it’s not that far away from the Valhalla terminal,” she looked over at the machine, “We’ll need to walk there, though, the teleporters in Expel are still down. You know, if this machine hadn’t been here and turned on, I might not have been able to open that portal in time. Whatever you did to the Expel gate really screwed it up.”

“I did nothing! I just ran through a door,” insisted Chisato, “It was already open.”

“Uh-huh. The door you shouldn’t have been able to get through even if it was open,” the angel nodded, “Although, I’m starting to suspect that isn’t your fault. If there’s more of these things in here,” she took the controller from a baffled-looking Puffy, “They probably open up to other gates. Old Santa probably doesn’t even know what these are for. He could have caused a whole lot of confusion that made weirder things happen than a few people in places they shouldn’t be. “

“The machine brought me here?”

“Not exactly. It allowed you to see and enter this place, though,” she said, “And you just happened to be there when it did so. That’s why you probably won’t get into any trouble for it, to be honest. A certain businessman, however...”

“What’s gonna happen to the consoles?” demanded Welch, “I… I can’t let you just take them and get rid of them. They’re beautiful machines and priceless antiques by now and I admit I kinda want one!”

The angel sighed, “You sound like you know what it is and you haven’t done anything too irresponsible with the 4D access you have, all you’ve done is try to help your friends and matchmake everyone for some reason.”

“I’m looking for perfect love,” explained Welch, as she reached for the ‘off’ switch. Puffy placed a restraining hand over her wrist.

“Um, how do we get back home if she switches that off?”

“We’ll plug it in somewhere else,” said the angel, “It’ll work anywhere with a power source. I think we need to get out of this place, though – who knows how unstable it is now with all these portals opening up everywhere!”

“Uh… unstable, like, gonna blow up?” asked Celine, looking nervously around at the sirens now blaring, the slight tremors making it hard to keep her footing, the pirates and drones now running around in all directions and panicking at yet another thing that, fortunately, was more urgent than intruders.

“Its okay, I know where the escape shuttles are,” said Chisato.

“Or I’ve got a Frog Jewel,” suggested Rena, digging the figurine out of her belt pouch.

“How about we not use anything from this damn place,” the angel said. It occurred to Rena that angels seemed to blaspheme and curse a lot more than she would have expected, “Except the console, I mean, but at least I know he didn’t try to make that himself. I can tell a bootleg from a mile off. By the way, can you grab me as many controllers as you can? They wear out like you wouldn’t believe.”


	10. Chapter 10

The shuttle wasn't automatic but fortunately, the angel (who introduced herself as the Ethereal Queen) knew how to pilot it. In fact, she drove like a maniac. Once Chisato finally felt ready to emerge from the bathroom, she joined the two fourth-dimensional girls in their discussion of where they actually wanted to be dropped off. 

"It doesn't have to be Expel," said the Queen, "There are portals everywhere in the galaxy."

"Can you get back to the Eternal Sphere?" asked Welch. 

"Can I ever? They still think its an unreleased game of theirs," said the Queen, "Gotta keep an eye on dangerous people like them. To be honest, I was a little worried you worked for them."

"That tasteless scum? Hmph. I'm going to be their biggest competition one day," Puffy folded her arms. Now that she was no longer in danger, her usual personality, with all its bluster, was returning. Despite often being the victim of her tantrums, Chisato was glad the child was okay. 

"I'm... not a fan either," admitted Welch, looking a lot more troubled. Chisato wondered what exactly had transpired between the suddenly serious looking girl, who was hardly ever serious about anything, and the notorious corporation, "But I gotta take this console back somewhere it won't cause any more trouble. D'you think there are more?"

"If there's more in Santa's workshop, he'd better get them out of that death trap before the whole thing blows," said the Queen, "In the whole galaxy? That's... more of a long term project. And not usually my job. I need to go back to overseeing the Mazes and the Gate as soon as possible. The idiot I left in charge probably hasn't even fixed the Expel terminal yet."

"If its okay, I don't want to go back to Expel, either," said Chisato, "Is there, like, a trade hub you can leave me at? So I can return to the spacefaring world. Alternatively, if you know somewhere I can investigate possible leads to abandoned Nedian outposts..."

"Of the latter, none that you're allowed in. If you're going to sneak into them anyway, at least wait until my back is turned, okay?" she sighed, "But we're not far from a Tetragene outpost, will that do?"

"Oh, do you think I might meet Opera and Earnest?"

"Two particular people in the largest galactic civilisation? When the two people explore as far out as Expel for fun? I doubt it, to be honest. Are you sure you want to leave behind all your friends? Life's no fun without friends."

"You could come with us," offered Welch, "I remember being on Nede and they definitely had some fourth-dimensional access going on. Maybe we can track down where they got that from."

"That's not a bad idea," said the Queen, "You're on my list of people with fourth-dimensional access anyway, because you know these two, and because you've seen so much. It won't make any difference to your security status."

"Uh... okay?" Chisato ruffled her short, feathery red hair and laughed nervously. Nice to know I'm on yet another security watchlist, she thought.

The angel was right, anyway, she mused. Chisato couldn't really bring herself to leave behind every friend she currently had, even if it meant she might possibly reunite with other friends. Being alone in the galaxy wasn't a good life for anyone. 

Besides, she wanted a go on that console of Welch's.

* * *

By the time the Ethereal Queen returned to her throne atop the Maze of Tribulations, her brother had repaired the trader's entrance on Floor Six and brewed them both a pot of tea. The Food God statues and the broken pillars were replaced, the chests on the lower floors refilled, the puzzles reset, the diminished stocks of monsters replenished. A thorough sweep of the labyrinth had revealed no lasting traces of the Dark Matter Dimension, its portals or its inhabitants. 

Santa wasn't back but then he often went away for weeks on end anyway. He had other bases, portals to other places, including other Maze instances - plenty of means to escape even if he hadn't just taken one of the several other shuttles from his station. His business would take a bad hit from the damaged stock but he was wealthy enough to survive - assuming that was even his real main base of operations. 

The security cameras had returned to their normal viewpoints of every floor in all the instances of the Maze, stretching from past, present to future and several possible arcs of cause and effect. They didn't all fit on screen at once, of course, but the twin Final Guardians could switch between them instantaneously and any dangers would be flagged up by the various sensors. 

For now, everything was normal. As far as a multidimensional dungeon outside of time, guarded by Archangels of Tria, designed to be tougher than anything you could possibly face in your regular life, could be said to in any way resemble normality, that is. 

Back on Expel, the Trials were reattempted again after only a week's rest. Rena and Celine dragged Ashton with them this time. Along a parallel but separate timeline, Chisato ran with Welch and Puffy through the abandoned Eternal Sphere test areas, pursued by an elite corporate security squad with drone backup. Somewhere very distant, the Valkyrie Lenneth and her Einherjar came worryingly close to the end of her own Trials. 

"We're going to have to fight that Valkyrie sooner or later, you know," muttered Gabriel Celestia. The Ethereal Queen yawned and stretched.

"Good. I won't have to hold back and I don't have to hide my true form, not from someone practically becoming a Goddess herself. No hiding in a damn musical instrument."

"Not worried she'll wipe the floor with us?"

The Queen let out a snort of derisive laughter in response.

"Are you sure it was okay to let those two kids go? And with an artifact that powerful?" asked Gabriel for the third time since his sister got back. She fixed him an annoyed glare.

"You saw it yourself, didn't you? The cameras didn't stabilise until Welch took that controller in her hand. As for Puffy, she's got potential but she needs a friend to keep an eye on her."

"And the journalist?"

"She's started a new journey. I'm hoping she'll tell me if she finds out anything I don't already know."

"You're expecting to see them again?"

"Well, they haven't even finished their Trials. Leaving the Maze midway and not coming back is no fun. Besides, I said I'd recruit them, didn't I? It wasn't just an idle promise. If they make it to the end. I don't recruit weaklings."

"If they make it," repeated Gabriel. Out of the very few people who even found the Maze, only a tiny fraction actually got anywhere near its end. It'd take them a long time, too. He guessed that, as long as nothing else went wrong, he'd be free to take a break for a while.

Turning his attention back to the monitors, he noted the opening of a new gate on planet Styx, an unusual location for a Maze entrance, then shrugged and poured them both some more tea.


End file.
